TRANSPORT

Road Safety Strategy

David Jamieson: The Government's road safety strategy "Tomorrow's roads—safer for everyone" published in March 2000 included a commitment to evaluate every three years progress on delivery of the strategy and towards meeting the 2010 casualty reduction targets.
	The first three-year review has been conducted by the Department, in consultation with the Road Safety Advisory Panel, which includes many of the key stakeholders both within and outside Government. I intend to publish the outcome of the review on 7 April 2004 to coincide with World Health Day 2004, the theme of which is the global road safety challenge. Copies of the review report will be placed in the Library of the House.

Maritime and Coastguard Agency

David Jamieson: I am pleased to announce the Ministerial Targets for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency for 2004–05. I will place in the House Library, shortly, a copy of the Agency's Business Plan and Forward Look, which includes its Ministerial targets for 2004–05. The Ministerial targets are:
	In at least 96 per cent. of incidents, within 5 minutes of being alerted, take a decision on the appropriate search and rescue response and initiate action if necessary;
	Deliver at least 97 per cent. of planned ship inspections, and ensure that 95 per cent. of mandatory expanded ship inspections are carried out;
	Approve ship security plans and undertake verifications of all applicable UK registered cargo ships;
	Establish a baseline for seafarer satisfaction levels;
	Develop a robust statistical base and design a system, which will allow the Agency to measure accurately the impact of its incident prevention activity;
	Ensure that no more than 3 per cent. of UK ships inspected under the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) arrangements are detained, and also ensure that the UK Shipping Register maintains a position on the Paris MOU White List which is comparable to registers of a similar size and reputation.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Independent Police Complaints Commission

Hazel Blears: I am pleased to announce the launch of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which has now replaced the Police Complaints Authority. It will operate under the powers and duties provided to it by the Police Reform Act 2002. Under the Chairmanship of Nick Hardwick, it is responsible for the effective and efficient running of the police complaints system.
	The IPCC has its headquarters in London, and also has a regional presence in Manchester, Leicester, and Cardiff.
	As guardian of the complaints system, the IPCC alongside the police service and others will undertake a vital role in maintaining public confidence in the integrity and accountability of the police service.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Local Authority Fees 2004–05

Elliot Morley: Charges to cover the costs of local enforcing authorities in regulating processes which are subject to Part I of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (Local Air Pollution Control (LAPC)) were introduced in April 1991. Interim charges for installations which are subject to the Pollution Prevention and Control Act 1999 (Local Air Pollution Prevention and Control (LAPPC) and Local Authority—Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (LA-IPPC)) were introduced in August 2000.
	With the approval of the Treasury to the extent required, and following consultation with local authority associations and industry, myself with my right hon. Friend, the Minister for Sustainable Food and Farming have made revised schemes in respect of the Environmental Protection Act England and Wales and in respect of the Pollution Prevention and Control Act. The schemes specify the scale of fees and charges to take effect from 1 April 2004.
	There will be a 2.75 per cent. increase to the LAPC, LAPPC and the LA-IPPC fees and charges schemes for 2004–05. One of the factors taken into account was the take-up of cost accounting by local authorities which, when fully adopted, should provide the evidence of the adequacy or otherwise of current charging levels. According to my Department's statistics, 66 per cent. of local authorities had adopted cost accounting practices for LAPC by 31 March 2003, compared with 51 per cent. by the same date in 2002. A further 19 per cent. had said they intended to introduce cost accounting by the end of 2003–04, while the remaining 15 per cent. have no stated plans to do so.
	There will also be an additional fee spread over the 18,000 regulated activities, amounting to approximately £2/3 per standard activity. This is required to cover the £40,000 necessary to recover the costs of the Environment Agency's technical unit which provides guidance notes for use by local authorities and operators and is funded under the scheme.
	The schemes will be laid before both Houses and copies placed in the Libraries.

Farm Animal Welfare Report

Ben Bradshaw: In June 2003, the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) published its report and recommendations on the welfare of farmed animals at slaughter. It was a valuable and comprehensive report and I am grateful to the council for the work they put into it.
	The report contains 94 recommendations for improvements in the welfare of animals at the time of slaughter or killing and the Government are prepared to accept, or partially accept, the majority of them. But the Government also accept that FAWC's recommendation to ban the slaughter of animals without prior stunning on welfare grounds has been contentious for the Jewish and Muslim communities.
	The Government also recognise that such a ban would be likely to result in kosher and halal meat being imported with no overall improvement in animal welfare. We also think that there is a strong possibility that a legal challenge to a ban on slaughter without prior stunning would succeed on the grounds that the practice is protected under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights.
	While the Government therefore propose to reject the FAWC recommendation to ban slaughter without prior stunning, we recommend that cattle slaughtered by having their throats cut should receive an immediate post-cut stun because of the time it takes cattle to lose consciousness This should be progressed on a voluntary basis.
	In addition to the issues identified by FAWC, the consultation provides an ideal opportunity for a debate on whether meat from animals slaughtered without prior stunning for the kosher and halal markets should be labelled voluntarily. Some meat that has been slaughtered without the animal previously being stunned finds its way onto the ordinary meat market. At present, such meat is not required to be labelled to indicate the method of slaughter.
	We are today issuing our response to the FAWC report for consultation on all aspects including those identified in this statement.

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Land Registry

David Lammy: My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor has today set the following key performance targets for Her Majesty's Land Registry for 2004–05.
	
		HER MAJESTY'S LAND REGISTRY KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS AND TARGETS 2004–05*
		
			 KPI Target 2003–04 KPIAchievement(@ 6/2/04) 2004–05 
		
		
			  Customer Service—Speed 
			 Percentage of office copy and official search applications processed within two working days. 98% 100% 98% 
			 Percentage of all registrations processed within 20 working days. 80% 88% 80% 
			 Accuracy  
			 Percentage of registrations processed free of any error. 98.5% 98.8% 98.5% 
			 Overall Satisfaction
			 Percentage of customers who, overall, are very satisfied/satisfied with the full range of services provided by Land Registry. Better than94 98.7% Better than95 
			 Financial  
			 Percentage return on average capital employed. 6% 6% 3.5% 
			 Efficiency  
			 Cost per unit in:  
			 cash terms £29.08 £27.23 £28.98 
			 (real terms) (£22.17) (£20.55) (£21.43) 
		
	
	Critical Action Points
	
		
			 2003–04 Outcome @ 6/2/2004 
		
		
			 Start pilot implementation for e-Discharges. Achieved. 
			 Make all key Land Registry information services available over the Internet. Title Plans not yet available online. 
			 Implement the Land Registration Act 2002. Achieved. 
			 Report to Ministers on proposals for e-conveyancing service and procurement strategy Submission forwarded on 27 February 2004. 
			 2004–05  
			 Customer Service: Enable printing of authenticated results of Official Searches and Copies in a customer's office.  
			 Land Registration: Carry out consultation on a standard form of lease.  
			 Electronic Service Delivery: Start the pilot for processing e-lodgement of forms.  
			 Make Land Registry data available to the EULIS demonstrator.

DEFENCE

Reservists (Former Yugoslavia)

Ivor Caplin: A new call-out order has been made under Section 56 of the Reserve Forces Act 1996 so that reservists may continue to be called-out into permanent service to support military operations in the former Yugoslavia. The order will take effect from 1 April 2004.
	At present, some 300 Reservists are serving in the former Yugoslavia. They are providing a wide range of individual skills as well as a composite signals squadron. We do not expect to have to mobilise any Reservists compulsorily for this particular deployment and we are most grateful for their continuing support to an important stabilisation operation.

Veterans Agency

Ivor Caplin: The key targets that have been set for the Chief Executive of the Veterans Agency (VA) for the financial year 2004–05 are as follows:
	Service
	Key Target 1: To issue decisions on claims to war pensions in an average of no more than 63 working days. This represents a cumulative improvement of 38 per cent. against our 2000–01 baseline level of 100 working days.
	Key Target 2: To issue decisions on war widows claims in an average of no more than 25 working days. This represents a cumulative improvement of 31 per cent. against our 2000–01 baseline level of 36 working days.
	Key Target 3: To achieve an externally validated claims accuracy rate of at least 97 per cent.
	Key Target 4: To achieve an externally validated medical adjudication accuracy rate of at least 95 per cent.
	Valuing our people
	Key Target 5: To undergo a successful, externally managed IiP re-assessment exercise by June 2004.
	Working in Partnership
	Key Target 6: To work with the Department for Constitutional Affairs' Court Service to reduce the average time it takes an appeal to pass through the war pensions appeals process. By 31 March 2005 the average time should reduce to no more than 240 working days. This is an improvement of 10 working days on our 2003–04 target; and it represents a cumulative improvement of 57 per cent. against our 2000–01 baseline level of 565 working days.
	Efficiency
	Key Target 7: To use the Agency output costing methodology developed in 2002–03 to help identify and generate such administrative efficiencies and other savings as will enable the Agency to achieve a 3 per cent. reduction in 2004–05 against its 2003–04 final out-turn figure.

Deepcut (Surrey Police)

Adam Ingram: On 4 March 2004 the Chief Constable of the Surrey Police published his final report following the completion of the investigation into the deaths of Privates Sean Benton, Cheryl James, Geoff Gray and James Collinson at Princess Royal Barracks, Deepcut between 1995 and 2002. At the Chief Constable's request placed copies of the report in the Libraries of both Houses on the same day.
	In conducting background research for their report Surrey Police drew considerably on information provided by the Army. I recognise the interest of right hon. and hon. members in these cases placed and I am today arranging for a number of documents mentioned specifically in the report to be in the Library of the House shortly.
	These documents have, where appropriate, been expurgated to remove security sensitive material and references to third parties.
	We continue to give the Chief Constable's recommendations careful consideration. I expect to a further announcement after the Easter recess.

HEALTH

Clinical Trials Directive

Rosie Winterton: We are today laying before Parliament the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004, which will implement into United Kingdom law directive 2001/20 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 April 2001 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the member states relating to the implementation of good clinical practice in the conduct of clinical trials on medicinal products for human use. The regulations will come into force on 1 May 2004, the date by which member states are required to implement the directive.
	These regulations will ensure that the rights, safety and well-being of clinical trial subjects are protected by requiring sponsors of trials to be responsible for designing, conducting, recording and reporting clinical trials according to principles of good clinical practice derived from the principles set out in the amended 1964 Declaration of Helsinki. In addition, the regulations will further protect public health by ensuring that the results of clinical trials are collected, recorded and analysed in accordance with internationally recognised principles so that they can be audited and verified before being used to impact on public health, for example through a publication that changes medical prescribing practice or as evidence to support applications to place medicines on the market.
	The Regulations will provide a statutory basis for:
	standardisation of procedures for ethical and competent authority consideration and authorisation;
	good clinical practice (GCP) standards for commencing and conducting clinical trials;
	good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards for medicines used in clinical trials; and
	inspections against internationally accepted principles and standards of GCP and GMP, supported by enforcement powers.
	The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Department of Health will be publishing guidance on the new procedures which the regulations will implement from 1 May 2004. This will cover applications for clinical trial authorisations, inspections, ethics committee applications, informed consent for incapacitated adults and sponsorship of clinical trials.
	The Government have undertaken extensive consultation with stakeholders in both the pharmaceutical industry and the non-commercial clinical trials sector on how to implement the Directive. Where possible, concerns expressed by the non-commercial sector, in particular, about the possible regulatory burden have been taken into account in the UK Regulations. Furthermore, the MHRA and Department of Health have been working with stakeholders to help them comply with the practical requirements of the regulations. The Government believe that the regulations achieve a proper balance by safeguarding the rights of patients involved in clinical trials while avoiding a disproportionate impact on those who carry out clinical trials.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Pathways to Work

Andrew Smith: The Department of Work and Pensions laid before the house on 18 November 2002 a consultation document entitled: "Pathways to Work—Helping People into Employment", (Cm 5690). This outlined a range of proposals to provide more effective support to people with health conditions and disabled people. The Pathways to Work are at the leading edge of international best practice on the help and support that is on offer for people whose job prospects are affected by a health condition or disability. In a recent economic survey by the OECD, Pathways to Work has been described as a "radically new approach to dealing with those on incapacity benefits".
	On 27 October, I announced the launch of the first three pilots—Bridgend and Rhondda Cynon Taf; Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Argyll & Bute; and Derbyshire. I know there has been considerable interest in these groundbreaking reforms and I wish to update colleagues on progress in the first three pilots.
	To date, the specially trained personal advisers we have put in place have carried out over 3,000 Work Focused Interviews with promising results. Many customers are, as we believed; keen to actively consider a return to work and positive about the help on offer. They are keen to participate in the NDDP Programmes and NHS Condition Management Programmes. By mid-March, well over 400 customers had been referred to NDDP Programmes and in the first few weeks of operation, around 130 people had been referred to Condition Management Programmes. The Return to Work Credit of £40 a week is also proving a popular incentive, with approximately 700 awards made, helping incapacity benefits recipients make that final step back into work. Furthermore, there are over 700 longer-term recipients who have volunteered to work with an adviser to try and find a job. These figures are drawn from management reports and are provisional—validated statistics are expected to be available from May. With over 700 people helped back to work and off benefits, these pilots are already changing many people's lives. One such example is from Tonypandy, where a client who had been claiming Incapacity Benefit since 1978 due to a back problem and depression, with the support from her Personal Adviser, and help from Return to Work Credit, Adviser Discretion Fund, Tax Credits and New Deal 50+, started work as a Production Operator after 25 years on benefits.
	On 5 June, I announced the locations of the final four pilots—East Lancashire, Essex, Gateshead & South Tyneside and Somerset.
	My Department, together with the Department of Health have been preparing for the implementation of these pilots.
	In the Budget we also announced the expansion of the specialist Personal Adviser service to more actively support some longer-term IB recipients. We will also be introducing a new financial incentive to support customers as they undertake return to work activity.
	Today, I am pleased to announce that these pilots will be launched on 5 April.
	The pilots are to run until 2006 and the impact of the extra support will be fully evaluated before decisions are made about extending the measures.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Arm's Length Management Organisations

Keith Hill: I am today confirming funding of £473.4 million for 2004–05 and 2005–06 for the eight Arm's Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) set up under Round 1 of the ALMO programme. The ALMOs in Ashfield, Derby, Hounslow, Kirklees, Rochdale, Stockton-on-Tees, Westminster and Wigan have made excellent progress. Tenants are benefiting from improvements to their homes and an enhanced housing management service. All the Round 1 ALMOs have achieved ratings of at least two stars from the Housing Inspectorate, with three (Ashfield, Derby and Westminster) achieving three stars.
	Following a detailed assessment of the ALMOs' costs and their other sources of income, and taking account of the need to maximise efficiency, I have approved the allocations for 2004–06 shown in the table below. This will keep the ALMOs on track to achieve the decent homes target.
	
		
			 Round 1ALMO Number oftenanted units(2001) ALMOallocation2002–04 ALMOallocation2004–06  
		
		
			 Ashfield 8,288 £24.0m £22.1m  
			 Derby 15,424 £31.1m £66.0m  
			 Hounslow 14,801 £35.0m £64.7m  
			 Kirklees 28,269 £62.5m £87.3m  
			 Rochdale 17,227 £24.2m £82.1m  
			 Stockton 14,060 £44.5m £18.5m  
			 Westminster 13,500 £20.3m £53.7m  
			 Wigan 26,446 £58.3m £79.0m  
			 TOTAL 137,619 £299.9m £473.4m

TREASURY

EU Enlargement (Tobacco Products)

John Healey: I am today laying regulations confirming the introduction of quantitative restrictions on travellers bringing tobacco products from those new EU member states taking advantage of a derogation allowing them to delay meeting minimum duty levels on certain tobacco products.
	The restrictions will apply from 1 May to the following:
	cigarettes bought duty-paid in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia;
	manufactured tobacco products 1 bought duty-paid in the Czech Republic; and
	smoking tobacco 2 bought duty-paid in Estonia.
	Where new member states take advantage of the derogation, existing member states are entitled to maintain the same restrictions on the import of cigarettes and some other tobacco products bought in those countries for a traveller's own use, as are currently applied to travellers arriving from third countries, including the new member states.
	The Excise Duty Points (Etc.)(New Member States) Regulations 2004, the Customs and Excise Duties (Travellers' Allowances and Personal Reliefs) Order 2004 and the Channel Tunnel (Alcoholic Liquor and Tobacco Products)(Amendment) Order 2004 allow the UK to maintain these restrictions.
	After Accession on May 1, travellers to the UK bringing in tobacco products from the countries covered by the regulations will be restricted, as they are currently, to a limit of 200 cigarettes, or, in the case of Estonia, to a limit of 200 cigarettes or 250 grams of smoking tobacco; or, in the case of the Czech Republic, to a limit of 200 cigarettes or 50 cigars or 100 cigarillos or 250 grams of smoking tobacco.
	While the EU minimum duty rates are not met, uncertainties over the impact of EU Enlargement on excise smuggling and cross-border shopping are also heightened.
	The Government will therefore review both the operational and principled justification for retention of quantitive restrictions after 12 months in light of developments in smuggling and shopping patterns, and in light of progress made by the new member states to comply with the minimum duty levels.
	Customs and Excise has plans in place to explain the restrictions to the travel industry and general public.
	1 Manufactured tobacco products includes cigars, cigarillos and smoking tobacco.
	2 Smoking tobacco is hand rolling tobacco (HRT) and pipe tobacco.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Cyprus

Jack Straw: I would like to inform the House of developments in relation to Cyprus.
	Following the breakdown of settlement negotiations in The Hague in March 2003, the UN Secretary-General made a report to the Security Council. In this report Kofi Annan announced that his proposal for a comprehensive Cyprus settlement (the Annan Plan) remained on the table. However, he added that he did not propose to take any further initiatives unless and until such time as he was given solid reason to believe that the Necessary political will existed for a successful outcome.
	The Secretary-General went on to say that he believed it would be a great step Backward if the plan were simply to wither away. He believed that a solution on the basis of the plan could be achieved only if there was an unequivocally stated preparedness on the part of the leaders of both sides, fully and determinedly backed at the highest level in both motherlands, to commit themselves (a) to finalise the plan (without reopening its basic principles or essential trade-offs) by a specific date with United Nations assistance, and (b) to put it to separate simultaneous referendums as provided for in the plan on a date certain soon hereafter.
	The United Kingdom shared this approach and continued to work with its EU and US partners in support of UN efforts to keep the plan on the table and to encourage the parties to Remonstrate the necessary political will to re-engage.
	The elections in north Cyprus on 14 December 2003 marked a turning point. The Turkish Cypriots voiced their resounding support for the pro-settlement, pro-EU parties and in doing so gave popular expression to a growing desire from the Turkish Cypriot community to work for an early settlement of the Cyprus problem in order to allow a reunited Cyprus to join the EU on 1 May 2004. Encouraged by the attitude of the Turkish Cypriots and aware of the potential positive impact a Cyprus settlement would have on its own EU aspirations, the JVKP government in Ankara led by Prime Minister Erdogan signalled its own willingness to tje-engage and work constructively for a settlement.
	The parties (the Greek and Turkish Cypriots, Greece and Turkey) were therefore invited to New York by the Secretary-General on 4 February 2004 in order to resume negotiations towards a settlement on the basis of the Annan Plan. On 13 February, following an initial round of discussions, the Secretary-General announced that the parties had agreed to resume talks on the basis of the Annan Plan and had committed themselves to a three phase process leading to a finalised plan being submitted to simultaneous, separate referendums on 24 April
	The 13 February agreement was a landmark achievement. The parties had committed themselves to a strict timetable and a negotiation process which led inexorably towards simultaneous referendums on a pre-determined date on the basis of a settlement plan which, absent agreement between the parties (including, in the final stage, Greece and Turkey) would be finalised by the Secretary-General himself. Negotiations between the two sides resumed in Cyprus on 19 February. In parallel to the main political level negotiations between the leaders of the two communities, technical committees started to work through the whole range of laws and administrative texts and practical arrangements necessary to give effect to the new state of affairs.
	During this phase of the negotiations, our High Commissioner in Nicosia informed the UN that the UK's earlier offer to the UN of giving up roughly half of the territory of the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus remained valid, subject to some small changes in the map. The land to be ceded to the United Cyprus Republic would not in any way compromise the operational capabilities of the bases themselves. The UN confirmed that the UK's offer would be very valuable in taking forward the adjustments to the territory of the two new constituent states. The UK's offer has been incorporated in the UN's map for the new Cyprus.
	On 24 March, the negotiations moved to Buergenstock, Switzerland, where the UN and the parties were joined by Greece and Turkey in a final push for a negotiated settlement agreed between the parties themselves. The UK attended in its capacity as a Guarantor Power in order to assist the efforts of the UN Secretary-General's Good Offices Mission. The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Gunter Verheugen, also attended for the final days.
	On 29 March the Secretary-General presented the parties with a revised plan. This revision was produced following extensive consultation and aimed to strike a balanced compromise, building on the earlier version of the Annan Plan which had been presented to the parties in February 2003, and taking subsequent developments and both sides' views carefully into account. Following a further final round of meetings between the Secretary-General, the parties and Greece and Turkey, Kofi Annan called the parties together late on 31 March. Announcing that the time for negotiation and consultation was over, and that the time for decision and action had arrived, the Secretary-General presented the parties and the Guarantor Powers (Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom) with his finalised plan—Annan IV—for a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem.
	In his remarks, Kofi Annan said that the Plan was inevitably a compromise. It did not satisfy everyone's demands. But he believed that it met the core interests, and addressed the key concerns, of people on both sides. He added that the choice was not between the Plan and some other mythical solution. In reality, the choice was between the settlement on offer or no settlement at all. The Government shares this view.
	No one is under any illusion about what remains to be done. No one is saying that reunification will be easy. But the plan is balanced and fair, and offers all Cypriots the chance of a better future as citizens of a United Cyprus Republic within the European Union. The Government believes strongly that this is a chance that must not be squandered.
	The final decision will now be taken by the Cypriots themselves in separate, simultaneous referendums to be held on 24 April.